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Hey, good morning, playbookers, I'm Roku-Munovulin. It's Tuesday. And here's a question for you.

Why do you think Biden's base is unhappy? It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Democrats are trying to understand what's roiling the electorate heading into what looks like

a brutal midterm environment. HIT strategies has been conducting weekly focus groups to find out

in real time how Americans are processing events in 2022. Last night, team playbook watched discussions

with two different subgroups of partisan Democrats assembled by the firm. Group 1, Black Base always vote for the Dems, ages 25 and over.

And two, youth base always vote for the Dems, ages 25 to 39.

There were significant differences with them and between the two groups of nine voters,

but there were also some broad takeaways.

A preoccupation with inflation and crime, exhaustion with pandemic restrictions,

cynicism about politics, deep frustration that Biden and Democrats have failed to deliver on their

early promises, sympathy for Ukraine mixed with a lack of enthusiasm for Biden, spending too

much time and money on the issue, and ambiguity about how important January 6 should be for Democrats

in the midterms. These are sentiments picked up in recent polling. Biden's decline in approval

from black voters and millennials has been well documented, as of course has to rise in importance

of inflation, crime, and pandemic fatigue. But listening to these voters was still pretty instructive.

Watching three and a half hours, some, you notice a yawning gap between what

Democrats here in D.C. are saying and what their most loyal voters are experiencing

outside the Beltway. This was especially true on two big issues, one on the economy.

When the voters were asked to describe how they feel about how things are going,

they responded

...